Why are female comics more offensive than male comics?

According to "Daily Show" comedian Samantha Bee, it's because they have vaginas.

Published January 10, 2006 4:11PM (EST)

Broadsheet has always worshiped Samantha Bee, one of the few female faces on one of our favorite programs, "The Daily Show." But the new issue of Bust made us heart her even more.

The very pregnant Bee is photographed wearing high heels, with her belly proudly spilling over the top of her maternity miniskirt. In one shot, she is holding a goblet of red wine and has a cigarette dangling from her fingers, and in another, she's sniffing paint. (If you ask us, not enough women make fun of the holy shroud of pregnancy.) Bee is asked if she thinks "women bring a certain sensibility to comedy that men don't." "I feel like I have few boundaries when it comes to comedy," she says. "What's funny is funny." Bee tells a story about how she did a sketch about gay penguins and told a joke about how guy-on-guy penguin sex is not as hot as girl-on-girl penguin sex. "I just think it was better coming from a woman  Coming from a man, you can sort of expect it  I know that people are so offended by some things I do on the show."

When her interviewer asks whether those people find her jokes offensive or they are simply offended because a woman is telling those jokes, Bee says, "I honestly think it's because I'm a woman. I remember one of the writers told me, 'You know, my parents were talking to me about your performance on the show, and sometimes they think you go too far.' Too far? Hilarious. But I feel like people kind of go, 'There's a vagina there! How can she say that? She's got a uterus! Oh, God! It's inside of her!'"


By Lori Leibovich

Lori Leibovich is a contributing editor at Salon and the former editor of the Life section.

MORE FROM Lori Leibovich


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